Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1129 Retreat and Planning

"Go away!" Dozens of Feilong soldiers came over, kicking and beating a group of foreigners away.

At the gate of Tangtang Cangcheng, there was actually a stall, selling all kinds of odds and ends brought from the grassland.Are you here to fight, or to do business?
"These bastards are becoming more and more useless."

"Every time we fight, we're just dawdling. If it weren't for our Flying Dragon Army, we wouldn't have dared to harm the Khitans if we had some guts."

"Forget it, they are all miserable poor people. The chieftain of the Fan tribe is getting more and more shameless, and he doesn't restrain the subordinates."

After the sergeants drove the hawkers away, they found their own places to stand still.After a while, Liang Hanyong, the commander of the battalion, walked over surrounded by his own soldiers, talking and walking inside.

Following him were several local officials of Guanbei Province, the first was Zhang Quanyi, the governor of Canzhou, followed by the governors of Rouzhou and Shuozhou.

Jin Chongwen, who came all the way from Lingzhou to deliver the supplies, looked at the majestic generals enviously, took out the vinegar cake from his arms, and ate it with cold water.

"That fellow Zhang Quanyi is acting like a dog." A man next to him was instructing his master to unload the goods, and he muttered endlessly when he saw it.

"Brother Yue, can you say a few words less?" Jin Chongwen glanced at Cangcheng worriedly and said in a low voice.

Jin Chongwen also recognizes a lot of characters now, and he is no longer the illiterate emissary of the shogunate.On the eve of the founding of Daxia, he was lucky. Because of years of hard work, he became a county captain in Dingyuan County, Lingzhou, and finally broke away from the ranks of officials and became an official.

"I'm so afraid!" Yue Yemou said nonchalantly, "It's just a descendant."

Yue Yemou had reason to despise Zhang Quanyi.

He was originally the leader of a small tribe in a certain party, but after he was registered as Qimin, there were no tribe members, so he served as an idle official in the state and got a salary for nothing.After a long time, I was really bored, so I took the initiative to join the army and became the leader of the Zhen Guo army.After fighting for many years, he got old and his army was gone, so he retired and returned to Lingzhou to retire.

In fact, his official rank is from the eighth rank, which is one level higher than Jin Chongwen's county lieutenant from the ninth rank.However, the relationship between the two is good, and there is no distinction between them. This time they set off together to escort the supplies to Jooju for delivery, and they chatted on the road, which was fun.

In short, Yue Yemou was born in the "Zhengxia Banner" in Guanbei, and he was also a martial artist, so he naturally looked down on Zhang Quanyi, a poor local governor of Xiazhou who sacrificed his wife for glory.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, don't get in the way." A loud voice sounded not far away.

Jin Chongwen glanced at it, and said: "Jiang Xuanhui, he used to work beside Zhang Quanyi, but now he is joining the army in Sicang, Rouzhou."

"A person like a dog can be an official?" Yue Yemou was a little surprised.

Sicang joining the army is a state official under the eighth rank and eight classics.Not to mention the rank, but in terms of duties alone, it can be called a fat vacancy-Sicang joined the army to take charge of a state's "public office, measurement, kitchen, warehouse, rent, taxation, collection, rural areas, and shops." It's under his control, and the government's loan relief is also within the scope of his duties, which is a very critical position.

Considering the status of Johor State, this is even more serious. The money and food flowing through his hands every day is not a small amount.

Jiang Xuanhui quickly walked over and said loudly: "Don't unload here, go to the Zhenbei Warehouse. Especially the fodder, pull it over, someone from the east will pull it down, and the fodder is ready."

"One moment this, one moment that, are you sure?" Yue Yemou cursed, but he was a little far away from Jiang Xuanhui, so he probably didn't hear him.

"Who is withdrawing from the east? Did they lose the battle?" Jin Chongwen was keenly aware of the problem.

"I haven't fought yet, how can I suffer defeat?" A person next to me whispered, "In this situation, we won't be able to fight within two months. How many percent of food, equipment, and soldiers have arrived?"

Jin Chongwen took a closer look and found that the speaker was the warehouse governor of Daxi Cang, so he immediately stepped forward to say hello.

"I heard that the ones who have withdrawn are members of the Zangcai Wang family." Cangdu said again: "This time the troops are assembled, which is very strange. In February last year, the various ministries were notified, and the order was only issued in May this year. It was very hasty. Wait for the assembly It's over, it's almost the end of July, the beginning of August, and there's not much time to fight at all."

"I didn't want to fight this year." Jin Chongwen said after being silent for a while.

"I also think so." Cangdu smiled and said: "There are rumors in the state that the Khitans are attacking in a big way. The Sanquan, Ruyuan, and Xianyou Palace can't resist the enemy. They must first kill the old, weak, women, children, and cattle. The sheep moved west to avoid being plundered by the Khitans."

"If you don't give a shot, you will withdraw people and goods first. How many people have come from Khitan this time?" Yue Yemou was surprised.

He actually participated in an Eastern Expedition, as the commander of Xiangyong.I remember that Yang Yue and Yang Dutou were the commander in chief at that time, they fought very easily, and Khitan didn't have many people, they killed [-] to [-] cavalry, and they couldn't resist the overwhelming Xia soldiers at all.This time, they took the initiative to evacuate the old, weak, women and children who could not fight. It can be seen that the Khitan is coming fiercely. Could it be that there are [-] horses?

"I'm afraid it's not just Khitan." Cangdu said, "You can go to Yunzhou just south of Rouzhou. If Li Keyong sends troops, with so few people inside and outside of Rouzhou City, the defense may be enough, but they are also restrained. There is no spare energy to rescue the east side, so we can only withdraw first."

To put it simply, Khitan made a time difference.Although they haven't officially started a war yet, they have to guard against it.If one's own forces and supplies cannot be assembled within a short period of time, they can only shrink the battle line, so as not to be intercepted by the Jin army going north, and the Khitan will hit head-on again, and they will not be able to look at each other from head to tail, and will be defeated.

The few people present were all lower-level officials. Some had worked at the grassroots level for more than [-] years, some were directly responsible for the distribution of supplies, and some had been fighting in battle for many years. Every word you said and I said made the analysis of the situation indistinguishable.So, for many things, you can only lie to your superiors, not your subordinates, because they do things directly and are the most sensitive. However, as long as there is enough information, they can immediately restore a plausible whole for you.

"Dong dong dong..." There was a drum sound on the post road.

The three of them turned their heads and saw that the banner of "Second Yinshan Town" was flying.

Thousands of infantry stopped in unison.Once you've cleared your queue, move on.

On both sides of the queue, from time to time, Lingqi passed by, speaking with Xuzhou accent, conveying various orders.

"Suppressing soldiers went south, preventing and blocking Li Ke's use." A sense of enlightenment rose in the hearts of the three.

******
"Can you lure the Jin army out and annihilate part of it first?" Liang Hanyong, who had inspected the warehouse, got on his horse and asked.

"Maybe I can give it a try, but Jin people may not be what I want." Pei Guan, who was in charge of the camp in Rouzhou, said.

As far as this year is concerned, gathering troops is an unplanned thing.Or even if they gather troops, they are not prepared to gather so many people.

The Khitan had been mopped up for several years, and its vassal tribes were dilapidated and fled one after another.At this point, almost all the oil and water that can be scooped up have been scooped up, and the next step is to gnaw hard bones.

If you send troops this year, there is a high probability that you will lose money, that is, the looted animals, cattle, sheep, and goods will not be able to make up for the expenses of sending troops at all.

Then the decision is easy.Either no war, or scale back and spend less.

The imperial court agreed to the latter, that is, to gather 3 to [-] people this year, sneak into the territory of Khitan, burn, kill, and loot it, and it will be over. .

But things have changed.

The members of the Privy Council have all gone to Shengzhou to sit in town, and passed on the top-secret information received by the court.In addition to the traditional conscription targets of the Yinshan tribes, the Hexi tribes have also been conscripted, and a large number of herdsmen, cattle and sheep are gathering in the direction of Jozhou through various roads.Several officials from Guanbei Province also came together to urge the states and counties to recruit masters, transport them by boat or horse and camel, and gather supplies to Johor State—before the outbreak of the war, the first thing that needs to be completed is the assembly of soldiers and supplies , the process is expected to continue until the end of July.

In fact, Liang Hanyong didn't feel how difficult the Khitan people were to deal with.What he was really worried about was that the Jin army would merge with Khitan, which would be very troublesome.

"The location on the east side of the river is really good, sandwiched between my granary and the front line." Liang Hanyong said: "If I were Li Keyong, once the imperial army and the Khitan fought against Yanbei, I would definitely send my best cavalry to go north. , to cut off the Wang Shi’s retreat.”

"Dutou, in fact, Jin people and Khitan may not be as united as you imagined, and there may be an opportunity to take advantage of it." Pei Guan said.

"Where is the machine?" Liang Hanyong asked.

"Dutou, the Khitan and Jin people gather together for profit, and they all expect the other party to come out first, delay and consume our army, and then come out to take advantage." Pei Guan said with a smile: "Some guesses, if the Khitan people come with a large army, they will definitely come out." Attack Yanbei first, sweep all the pastures, gain benefits first, and will not fight head-on with our army elite. As for the Jin people, most of them have to inquire about the news first to see if our army has fought against the Khitan people before making a decision. This is called Each has ghosts, each has treachery."

Liang Hanyong laughed loudly: "Counselor Pei has seen through Jin people and Khitan people. There is no mutual trust between them, so how can they cooperate?"

Thinking about it carefully, the Khitan people and the Jin people are indeed unlikely to cooperate closely and advance and retreat together.

If the Khitan army does not come, most Jin people will just sit back and watch the situation change, and then adjust their deployment.If the Xia army does not fight well, they will attack, take advantage of the fire, and turn the Xia army's small setback into a big defeat.If the Xia army fought well and the Khitan people were killed and fled in embarrassment, the Jin people might not be dispatched and continued to hide and pretend to be dead.

Conversely, would the Khitan people also have this idea?Very likely.

Thinking of this section, Liang Hanyong already had a plan in mind.

"Send an order to Qu Zhu and Tuoba Jin, don't just retreat, find a way to check the strength of the Khitan people."

"Then send an order to Wang He to select the elite first and take the initiative to attack the territory of Khitan to see how prepared they are."

After giving two orders in a row, Liang Hanyong called Xue Li again and said, "This side of Rouzhou, please watch for me for a while."

"Where do you want to go?" Xue Li asked in surprise.

"Go to Shengzhou and meet Privy Yang." Liang Hanyong said: "Some plans have to be coordinated by the court."

(End of this chapter)